Newark Street X175 tweaks, round one.

Walter Broes

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I have a very recent Newark Street X175, a black one. It came the way the sunbursts are, wood bridge and harp tailpiece.

Here's what I've done to it so far, to make it resemble what I'm used to (my old ones) more, and to make it a practical stage guitar :

-put a tune-a-matic bride saddle on the existing bridge base. My luthier buddy worked on the base to make it fit the guitar's top better, and I put two small screws through it to anchor it to the guitar's top. It's not a solid top vintage D'Angelico, I don't play super heavy strings, and bend quite a bit, and this helps keep the guitar in tune and withstand transport. The bridge is a wireless ABR-1 from Philadelphia Luthier, and I put three nylon saddles in it for the plain strings.

-I put a USA Guild Bigsby on it I got from the guy that's been selling the remaining New Hartford stock on Ebay.

-I replaced the pickups with a pair of vintage Franz pickups I still had in my parts box. Lucky ebay find many years ago.

-I had my luthier friend move the back pickup to where it is on an old X175 : the Newark Street guitars have the lead pickup sitting closer to the neck than on the vintage guitars. It makes for a slightly fatter "lead pickup by itself" tone, but it was too mellow sounding for me, I'm in the middle switch position a lot, and that didn't have the bite and spank I'm used to.

-in the "cosmetics" department, I put four stove top knobs on it, and darkened the unusually light fingerboard and bridge base with some ebony stain from Stew Mac.

IMG_5441_zpsevsxw0sk.jpg


What I'm still planning to do :

-Put a switchcraft switch in it (the cheap one in it now rattles), CTS pots, one push pull for phase.
-Make a new pickguard for it, the stock one doesn't fit the new pickup placement, there's a gap, and I'll probably do a multi-layered black one again so I can have it engraved with my "WB" logo.
 

kakerlak

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You finally did it, Walter! So, did the pickup cover wind up hiding the 2nd set of mounting holes (from its original location)?
 

Walter Broes

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You finally did it, Walter! So, did the pickup cover wind up hiding the 2nd set of mounting holes (from its original location)?

More or less, yes. There's half of one hole that's slightly visible, but it's under the pickguard, so you don't really see it. And I like the result, it's brighter, and not at all too thin or bright. I wonder why they moved the pickup in the first place, as far as I'm concerned they fixed something that wasn't broke, so I unfixed it.
 

kakerlak

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More or less, yes. There's half of one hole that's slightly visible, but it's under the pickguard, so you don't really see it. And I like the result, it's brighter, and not at all too thin or bright. I wonder why they moved the pickup in the first place, as far as I'm concerned they fixed something that wasn't broke, so I unfixed it.

Same here, seems an odd choice for what otherwise looks like a pretty accurate reissue. It's a big enough difference that I noticed it from online photos and thought, "Wait a minute..." It was also a contributing factor to my not being too eager to get one of these (well, that and money), so it's cool to get some independent verification of what'll go where.

Maybe the guitar they spec'd for the reissue was a single pickup version and they guessed at a bridge pickup location. Are the extra knobs and switch in roughly the same place as your '60s models? BTW, speaking of "same place," I meant to ask if you moved the pickup all the way to where it sits on your old ones or just as far as it could go w/o showing holes.

[EDIT] Or maybe they goofed up the specs on their pickguards and ended up with a big inventory of wrong-spaced pickguards and mounted the pickups to match.
 
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Guildadelphia

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Walter's black 175 looks very cool. The Newark St line was Mike Lewis' baby at FMIC. Re the bridge pu placement on the 175 I'm guessing that was Mike's idea. He did the same thing on the Gretsch 5120 Electromatics...moving the bridge pu a little further from the bridge to get a fatter, more usable sound when using the bridge pu by itself. I'm fine with it, but in all hoesty, I don't think it was really neccessary either.
 

Walter Broes

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Yep, Mike Lewis' work (great work btw, the guitars are very impressive at the price point!), and yes, he did the same thing on the Gretsch electros.

If I wasn't so used to my vintage Guilds, I probably wouldn't have even noticed the bridge pickup placement, but like I said, the guitar was a little too "friendly" and mellow sounding for my taste the way it came, especially in the middle switch position

Kakerlak, except for the lead pickup placement, it's very impressive how much the Korean made 175 resembles a 1960 175 I used to have. Body shape and dimensions, neck shape, control placement, you name it. the frets are bigger, but I like that. the pickguard shape is slightly different - and I wonder why- but it's still pretty close as it is.

The headstock shape is different, but I'm pretty sure had they gone with the "open book" headstock shape the Franz equipped guitars had back then, they'd gotten a very angry letter from Gibson. the headstock shape Mike Lewis came up with for these guitars is, for my taste, a very elegant blend of the 50's and 60's Guild headstock shapes.
 
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kakerlak

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I've always loved guitars with a super bright bridge pickup -- low output and close to the bridge. Love my Jazzmaster, teles, etc. I realize I'm probably in the minority and that most players these days are looking for a higher output, "fat" tone, so I guess it doesn't surprise me too much.

It seems curious, though that they didn't make the same shift in placement of the bridge pickup on the Aristocrats. To my eyes, those new ones look to be in the same spot as the old, which is pretty close to the bridge. I think I'd have a very hard time choosing b/w X-175 and M-75 if ever I got serious about shopping Newark Street stuff.

[EDIT] I dig the fact that they got the Korean (Samick?) factory not to do a scarfed headstock joint on these. I have a (probably) irrational disdain for those, usually.
 

SFIV1967

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The headstock shape is different, but I'm pretty sure had they gone with the "open book" headstock shape the Franz equipped guitars had back then, they'd gotten a very angry letter from Gibson.
Yes, that is exactly what Mike Lewis had told me at NAMM 2013 as the reason.
Cool tweaks you did on your guitar! :)
Ralf
 
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